These articles from Manufacturer and Builder Magazine were
published in the early 1880s, the time when cable railway technology
first spread beyond San Francisco.
Photo scans of the articles are available from
Making of America at Cornell University.
Uncorrected text scans are available from the
Library of Congress'
American Memory site. I did some cleanup of the text scans. I made
a few editorial comments in italics with my initials.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 14, Issue 7,
July 1882

When this article was published, cable railways had just begun
to expand beyond San Francisco.

Late advices from Paris report the fact that the managers of the
street-car lines of that city, after persistent and continued experiments
continued for the past five years, during which time they had tested the
merits of no less than twenty-one forms and modifications of steam motors,
have finally abandoned the attempt and gone back to horses.

Such a conclusion appears to be contrary to our accepted notions of
progress, but it is practically the same result as that reached several
years earlier by the street-car companies in a number of American cities.
The conclusion is to be regretted, as the substitution of some economical
motive power to take the place of animal traction for this service would be
attended with many advantages from a sanitary and humanitarian standpoint.
Perhaps the electric railway, which has lately been successfully introduced
in Berlin, and which is spoken of with much enthusiasm by all who have had
the opportunity of witnessing its operation, may be the initiation of a
departure that will ultimately solve the vexed question.

Whatever the future may have in store for us in this direction, it
appears to us that, with the benefits of the experiments and failures with
steam in Paris, and in our own cities, inventors should find the problem of
devising a safe, practical and economical motor for street cars not
impossible to solve. The cable system in vogue in
Chicago is highly spoken
of, and seems to have proved a very satisfactory method. It may, in fact,
be the practical solution of the problem, though we do not know enough of
the details of its operation to venture a decided opinion on the subject.

The capabilities of compressed air engines for this species of service,
it seems to us, have not been sufficiently considered by those who have
turned their thoughts to the solution of the street-car problem. The system
is free from most of the objections that are properly urged against the use
of steam. It would dispense with the cumbersome and uncomfortable
adjunct of the steam boiler, which of itself would be a signal advantage,
even if it possessed no others.

The present state of quiescence into which the consideration of the
subject has fallen should not be interpreted as an indication that public
interest in it has been lost. On the contrary, the demand for such a reform
will grow more and more urgent from year to year, until the right solution
of the problem has been found.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 14, Issue 10,
October 1882

When this article was published, cable cars ran only in San Francisco,
Dunedin, NZ, and Chicago. The line in Philadelphia was about to open.

In recent editorial remarks on the Street Railway
Problem, we took occasion to refer to the partial
failure of the use of steam as a substitute for animal
power. We referred briefly to the cable system and
its apparent success, and desire here to supplement
our previous remarks by additional facts and observations,
which, we are pleased to state, speak very favorably
indeed of this novel method of street-car propulsion.

The cable system was first introduced in practical
operation in
San Francisco in 1873, by Mr.
A. L. Hallidie(A S Hallidie - JT)
and his associates, on what is now known as
the Clay Street Hill Railroad Co.,
the means employed being substantially the invention of the
gentleman named (not true - JT). The difficulties of the
steep grade on
the line of this road were so great that ordinary horse
cars were out of the question, and some substitute had
to be found to make the route feasible. Mr. Hallidie's
invention solved the problem successfully, and paved the
way for the introduction of numerous other
roads of a similar kind in that city, all of which have
proved highly satisfactory in practice.

The essential features of the cable system, which is
gradually making its way into other cities, are briefly
described in the following: Between the tracks,
which are of ordinary construction, is laid a tube,
formed of sections laid end to end, and bolted together
at the ends, so as to form a continuous passage. The
tube is elliptical or circular in cross section, and
from 12 to 20 inches in largest diameter.
At the upper portion of the tube is a slot about 3/4 to
7/8 of an inch in width, forming a continuous opening
on the surface between the tracks the whole length
of the line. The object of the tube is to carry a steel
wire rope, which moves inside of it at the rate of
about six miles per hour, being driven by a powerful
stationary engine placed at the end of the line. The
rope is carried on guide pulleys stationed at intervals
of a few feet apart on suitable supports within the
tube.

The cars are of the ordinary pattern, but are provided
with a gripping device, which is controlled by
the driver, and which connects the car on the track
with the traveling wire rope, the shank of the grip
passing up through the slot above described. By
throwing the grip on the cable, the car is pulled along
at the same speed the rope is traveling; and by throwing
it off it is brought to rest. At each terminus of
the cable road the wire rope passes from one tube to
another, around a large horizontal sheave; and the
transfer of the car from one track to another, the
turning of curves, and the crossing of one line by
another, interpose no serious mechanical difficulties.

As above remarked, a number of these roads have
been in operation in San Francisco for several years
with notable success. During the past year some five
miles of cable railway have been laid down and operated
in Chicago; and in response
to inquiries made
by the editor of this journal, the superintendent states
that thus far the road has met every anticipation, and
that before the close of the present year nine additional
miles will be placed in operation. He states
that they have met with no difficulty from the accumulation
of dirt in the tube (the provisions for removing
the same being adequate), nor from snow and
ice. They are able to make better time than with
horses, and the operating expenses are 60 per cent
less than with animal power.

We may add to this the statement that an experimental
line of this kind is being laid down in
Philadelphia,
and will be in operation during the present
month; and if successful, as it has proved to be elsewhere,
it will be followed by others like it.

From all that we have been able to learn concerning
the cable system, it would appear to have solved
the vexed question of supplanting animal power for
street-car propulsion in a very satisfactory manner.
We hope to present illustrations showing the operation
of this system in an early issue.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 15, Issue 1,
January 1883

This item from magazine's year in review summary offers a brief comment
on the state of cable railways in 1882.

Some attention was attracted during the year to the experiment of
operating street cars upon the cable system of propulsion which has been
going on during the past year in
Chicago. This system has been in
successful operation for some years in
San Francisco, and the Chicago
experiment is pronounced to have been so satisfactory that it has been
considerably extended. A similar road was also laid down in
Philadelphia
during the year, and is now about going into operation. It is not at all
unlikely that this system may come in time to be universally adopted.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 15, Issue 5,
May 1883

Cable cars were still just beginning to spread when this article
was published. One factor that slowed their growth was concern
about their ability to operate in cities with harsh climates.

It is remarkable that the substitution of endless wire cables for horses
in drawing the street cars of this city (New York - JT)
should not have been proposed long ago.
Costing half as much, and greatly preferable, because neater, cleaner and
less troublesome, it is a change that ought to have commended itself
promptly to the consideration of the horse railroad companies especially
since its practicability was demonstrated long ago in
San Francisco. The
fear seems to have been entertained that while these wire cables might
answer in a comparatively equable climate like that of San Francisco, they
would not do where the extremes of temperature are very great, the theory
being that the
expansion of a wire cable several miles long by the heat of summer, and its
contraction by the cold of winter, would make such a difference in its total
length as to interfere seriously with its working. This apprehension,
however, has been proved groundless by the successful operation of a cable
road in Chicago.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 15, Issue 12,
December 1883

Professor Leo Daft (no kidding), an Englishman working in America, built several
early electric lines. The lack of success of some of these lines led to the
building of cable lines, including the Los Angeles
Cable Railway. Note that this experimental line in Newark used the
tracks to carry electricity to the car.

The daily newspapers of recent date contained more or less extended
notices of trials of an electric railway upon a system which embraced a
number of points of novelty. The trials in question were made near
Newark, N. J., and the system was that devised by Mr. Leo Daft. The
following, is a condensed description of the system and motor employed:

The tracks are used as conductors of the electric current, which is
picked up by the wheels of the motor, and by means of wires carried to
the motor's machinery. A bushing of vulcanized fiber takes the place of
part of the axles and so insulates the wheels on the one side from the
other, preventing a short circuit. The connection of the wires that take up
the electricity from the wheels, is changed by a switch, so that the
armature of the motor is made to turn forward and backward, as desired,
and the power is transmitted from the armature to the axles by means of
sprocket wheels and chains. Near each pair of wheels are two coils of wire,
through which the current can be thrown when, stoppage is desired,
by means of a switch. They are thus made powerful magnets, are attracted
to the wheels, and, pressing against their periphery, act as magnetic brakes.

This is all there is of the motor. It is so simple that a boy could
understand it, and, with a few minutes' instruction, operate it
successfully. The machine upon which these demonstrations were made
is small, weighing only 460 pounds, but Mr. Chapin says that it can drive
ten tons on a level, and that by its own power it has climbed a test track
at a grade of 2,000 feet to the mile. Above its little platform
upon which there is room for four persons to sit nothing is to be seen
but a couple of small cranks or levers, which are the switches for the
impelling power and the brakes. Beneath all the machinery is exposed
to full view.

The tracks are not insulated, but are laid down on
grounded ties after the ordinary fashion of surface
roads. At one place, it is affirmed in the account
from which we have gleaned the foregoing, a sandy
country road crosses the tracks, and the soil is flush
with the top of the rail. At another the track is
covered by the water from a pond whenever there is
rain, yet, we are told, neither earth nor water
exercise any notable influence upon the action of the
motor, which depends for its efficiency upon the use of
a current of exceedingly low tension in comparison
with previous devices for a similar purpose. It is
affirmed, furthermore, that the Daft system will
shortly be in operation on the Newark & Bloomfield
street railway in Newark.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 16, Issue 1,
January 1884

D J Miller's duplicate system used two cables in each conduit and a
double-jawed side grip. This made the cable system more dependable in theory,
but added greatly to the cost of building and operating it.

The wire rope or cable system of street car propulsion, which is gradually
finding its way from San Francisco and
Chicago into other cities, is about to be introduced in Kansas City, Mo
(Kansas City Cable Railway - JT).
As we glean from the Kansas City Review, this will be the first railway of
the kind that will be supplied with a duplicate cable. Thus far all such
roads have been provided with a single cable, which, in case of an
accidental breaking or fraying of the wire rope, entails a cessation of
traffic until the damage can be repaired. It is said that during the first year of
the operation of the cable road in Chicago, breakages of cables through
carelessness of the inexperienced grip-men were frequent, and caused many
vexatious delays.

The plant contemplated for Kansas City will consist of a duplication of
the driving rope and the connected portions of the machinery. While one
cable is driving the other is idle, and in case of damage to one, the
other can at once be put in service. This duplication of the plant, of
course, materially adds to the expense. Another notable feature of this
particular cable road, is that the western portion is designed to be an
elevated structure, built entirely of wrought iron.

Respecting the operating mechanism, it may be added that, in carrying out
the duplicate feature, there will be two sets of driving drums, either of
which can be put in operation by the use of a screw-clutch, throwing one
or the other into gear, so that in the case of one cable becoming damaged
by accident or other cause, its operating drum is at once thrown out of
gear, and that of the duplicate cable thrown in, thus calling the latter
into requisition. Another advantage to be derived from this duplicate
system, is that it will facilitate the frequent inspection of the cables,
and by thus permitting the detection of trifling injuries and their
repair, will materially contribute to the durability of the cables. This
it is proposed to accomplish by means of a small stationary engine fixed to
the bed-plate of the driving machinery, and of sufficient power to be just
able to set in motion either of the sets of drums and cables, which happen
to be out of service. While, therefore, one set of
drums is propelling the cars on the street, the idle one may be slowly
moved into the station-house with the aid of the little engine just named,
carefully inspected, and, if necessary, repaired.

The cable system seems to be growing in popularity, as we hear of
considerable extension of its use in San Francisco and Chicago, where it
has successfully stood the test of a number of years trial, and in
Philadelphia, where an experimental line of about half a mile was laid
down last year. This experiment appeals to have been so satisfactory that
the Union Passenger Railway Co., of that city,
possessing extensive lines,
has been for some time past engaged in laying down a long line of cable
railway, which, it is understood, will be adopted on all the lines of this
company should the anticipations of the projectors of the enterprise be
fulfilled.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 16, Issue 1,
January 1884

New York's
Metropolitan Railway held a contest to seek a better method
of propulsion than horse, cable, or trolley. The prize was never awarded.

The Metropolitan Traction Company, of this city, which owns and
operates many miles of surface railways, recognizing the limitations of
the cable system, the serious objections against the overhead trolley
system, the present unsatisfactory state of the storage battery system,
and the utter inadequacy of the antiquated horse cars, for solving the
problem of surface traction in the crooked streets of the crowded portions
of the city, has made public the announcement of a prize of fifty thousand
dollars to be awarded to the inventor of a system which shall
satisfactorily solve the difficulties of this perplexing problem. The
company has in operation no less than 80 miles of street railway (in
addition to its cable lines), now operated with horses, all of which are
below Central Park, and it is understood that it is to these lines in
particular, most of which have numerous curves, that the company's
proposition has reference.

The company's letter to the New York Board of Railroad Commissioners,
lately published, reads as follows:

"On streets where the lines are straight and the business is heavy, the
cable system is the most economical yet invented. For general use in a
city, winding about through the streets and following the routes of travel
which the public wish to pursue, it is impracticable. You require straight
routes for cable roads. We have, in addition to the lines upon which the
cable will be laid, over 80 miles of street railroads now operated with
horses, all below the Central Park. It is to these lines in particular
that we now desire to direct your attention.

"Up to the present time, the only system whose practicability has been
demonstrated is the overhead trolley. We are well aware, however, that its
application in the streets of New York would not meet with the approval of
the community. What we most desire now is to hasten the development and
perfection of a better system. We therefore submit the following
proposition:

"First. We will set aside the sum of $50,000, to be awarded as a
prize to any person who shall, before March 1, 1894, submit to your
honorable board an actual working system of motive power for street
railway cars demonstrated to be superior or equal to the overhead trolley.

"Second. The qualities necessary to meet this requirement shall
be left to your decision; but, with the present state of the art, a system
to win the award must necessarily approximate the trolley as a standard of
economy in operation, but should be without the features in it
objectionable to the public.

"Third. We shall exact no rights in the invention in return for
the $50,000, and shall have nothing whatever to do with the making of the
award further than to pay any expenses which your honorable board may deem
necessary or wise to incur, either in the employment of experts, the
giving of hearings, or the conduct of experiments this in order that no
effort may be spared to achieve the desired result."

It is understood that the commissioners, while unable to accept the
conditions proposed by the Traction Company literally, have offered to
cooperate with the company so far as they may, and that, for the purpose
of conducting the experimental trials of such inventions as may appear to
promise favorable results, a section of road on Fiftieth street will be
used.

As this offer is a free gift in public recognition of a valuable
invention, and not of the nature of purchase money for its use, it should
stimulate the ambition of our inventors to the utmost to earn it.

The popular sentiment is unanimous in the conviction that the day of
the horse car is past. The mechanical difficulties of operating the cable
system on lines having numerous curves, are so great as to place this
system out of the question. The
overhead trolley system for crowded thoroughfares is open to many
objections, and though it has come into use in many cities, it has been
tolerated only because nothing else has yet been proposed that, with equal
or superior advantages, offered fewer objectionable or impracticable features.

Naturally, the consideration of this subject at once suggests the
electric conduit and storage battery systems, as presenting the greatest
promise of meeting the exigencies of the situation. Unfortunately,
however, neither of these plans appears to have been so far developed as
to have demonstrated its complete fitness for the kind of service
required.

The conduit system for surface roads, it is gravely to be apprehended,
would encounter insuperable difficulties from the accumulation of mud and
dirt, and obstruction from snow and ice; the general opinion of those
expert in such things being that it is only adapted for use on an elevated
structure.

The storage battery system offers much greater prospect of solving the
difficulties of the question, and though numerous failures have been
recorded of experiments made with this system in various localities, the
accounts of certain trials at present being conducted in this city (on
Second avenue), announce that fairly satisfactory results have been
attained, from which it would seem that substantial progress has been made
in the adaptation of the storage battery to this class of work. It is
universally admitted that a practicable storage-battery system, would,
once and for all, solve the surface road problem for the crowded streets
of cities; and it is scarcely credible that the constant efforts of
inventors to remedy the faults of the apparatus will fail of fruition. We
have confidence in the ultimate complete success of this method, and look
upon it as the system of the future for the intricate surface traffic of
the large cities; while for rapid transit in cities the elevated electric
system, fully commented on elsewhere in this impression, appears to have
demonstrated its substantial superiority over steam; and for suburban
lines, and connecting lines between towns and villages, the overhead
trolley appears to be particularly well adapted, and in the near future
will most probably be enormously extended. Thus, it would seem as though
for the next few decades at least electric traction in one form or
another, must practically supplant all other systems in the fields of
application herein referred to.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 15, Issue 1,
January 1883

This item explains the operation of the pull curve for a side grip line.

Q. 3149. CABLE STREET RAILWAYS -- In your editorial in your October
issue, on the Cable System of Street Railways, you say that the crossing of
one line by another interposes no serious mechanical difficulty. I do not
quite see how it can he done, and will be obliged if you will explain the
method. -- J. E., Philadelphia.

Answer. The crossing of cable lines where two lines intersect each other
is done in a very simple manner. Of course the rope of one of the
intersecting roads is below the other. At the intersection the track is
slightly deflected to one side -- just enough to clear the grip entirely
from the rope, which is alowed to slip entirely away from it. The car then
goes over the crossing by its own momentum, and the grip is switched on to
the rope again as the former moves back to its original line on the other
side, the tubes at such points being especially constructed so as to give
the cable the proper elevation.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 16, Issue 1,
January 1884

This item from magazine's year in review summary offers a brief comment
on the state of cable railways in 1883.

It may be of interest to notice incidentally that the endless wire cable
system of drawing street cars as a substitute for horses, to which we
referred in
last year's summary, has continued to demonstrate its
feasibility. It has been considerably extended both in San Francisco and
Chicago. In Philadelphia an experimental line, laid down in 1882, proved the
advantages of the system so satisfactorily, that the projectors have
considerably extended it. In Kansas City a cable road, with duplicate cables
and duplicate operating mechanism (to avoid delays or stoppage of traffic
should one of the cables suffer injury), is about to be put in operation.
1884.
[Manufacturer and builder / Volume 17, Issue 1, January 1885]

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 17, Issue 1,
January 1885

This item from magazine's year in review summary offers a brief comment
on the state of cable railways in 1884.

The cable system of street car propulsion has received a noteworthy
extension during the past year, by the construction of about ten miles of
such railway for several of the leading street railway companies in
Philadelphia, and which was about ready to be put in operation at the close
of 1884. It is in contemplation to considerably extend these lines, and if
the plans at present decided on are carried out, there will shortly he no
less than twenty miles of cable railway in operation in that city. The
system in question is in successful operation in San Francisco Chicago,
Detroit (Never in Detroit - JT) and Kansas City.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 16, Issue 6,
June 1884

New York's Metropolitan Railway had held a contest to seek a better
method of propulsion than cable. They reneged on the deal.

Q. 4800. PRIZE FOR THE BEST STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM -- Can you inform me
whether the prize of $50,000 said to have been offered by one of the street
railway companies of New York for the best system of street railway, has
been awarded, and if so, what was the approved plan? -- J. M. T.,
Burlington, Vt.

Answer. The prize above referred to, we are informed, was not awarded,
and the offer has been withdrawn. The company, it is understood, is at
present experimenting on its own account. The conditions of the problem
confronting this New York company are extremely difficult to meet
satisfactorily. They involve providing for traffic through many narrow and
extremely crowded thoroughfares, with many curves, and other obstacles
equally troublesome to be overcome. The overhead trolley line, which is so
popular in many localities, is quite inadmissible under such conditions; the
underground trolley is of questionable practicability; storage-battery
traction is not yet quite able to fill the bill; the cable system is not
suited for such severe service; an elevated system is not to be thought of,
and, taken altogether, the case is an extremely troublesome one to meet
satisfactorily.

From Manufacturer and Builder / Volume 16, Issue 7,
July 1884

By the time this article appeared, cable railways had opened or were
about to open in London and Saint Louis, MO.

The success of the cable system of traction for city
passenger railways has been so decided in the cities
of San Francisco and Chicago, in which it has been
in continuous operation for some time, that its merits
are urging themselves upon the attention of railway
companies in other cities. We have in previous issues
of the MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER described
the general features of this system in some detail, but
for the information of such of our readers as may not
have had the opportunity of seeing our
former accounts,
we will explain that the system consists in
drawing street cars by means of an endless traveling
wire cable, which is kept in motion at a uniform and
predetermined rate of speed by powerful engines at
a terminal station, by which the cable is wound over
a drum, being wound up on one side and paid out
on the other. The cable is carried in a continuous
tube or conduit of variable, but generally oval shape,
the upper portion of which terminates in a narrow,
longitudinal opening, which comes flush with the
surface of the ground, and forms a continuous slot
the whole length of the line, and in the center of the
ordinary surface tracks. The wire
rope traveler is supported in this conduit
on loose guide pulleys placed at
suitable distances apart in the conduit.
The cars are propelled with the aid of
a grip controlled by the driver.
This consists of a lever placed in the
forward part of the car, which passes
down through the aforesaid narrow
slot, and terminates in a clutch or
gripping device by which the cable
may be grasped when the car is to go
forward, or released when it is necessary
to stop. This will suffice to give
a general idea of the cable system.

At the present time some twenty
miles of cable road of an improved
pattern are being laid down in the city
of Philadelphia, which, when completed
and in operation, will constitute the most extensive application of
the system in use. We show in the accompanying
illustration a perspective view of one of the sections
of the conduit employed in this construction, for
which, as well as for the following details of the project,
we are indebted to the Bulletin of the International
Electrical Exhibition:

The engraving exhibits a section of the large subway
or tube system referred to, intended for a street
railway system known as the cable motor. It is
claimed that this motor has the advantages of greater
speed and economy over the present method of propelling
by horse power. The sub-way is formed of
sections bolted together, each section being a self-contained
girder, opening at the apex, and forming a
continuous slot through which the grip-bar for the
cable is admitted. The structure is guarded against
lateral pressure on the sides, and from the effects of
heavy teams in crossing over the slot, by a series of
bracings riveted to the sides and bottoms. The depth
of the tube is 33 inches, the clear width of the body
of the tube in its lower portion is 12 inches, and the
length of the transverse channel beams is 40 inches,
which is the widest part at any point.

Two of the most prominent Philadelphia railways,
the Union and the Market street lines, are at
work changing their roads to accommodate the new
motor.

Those of our readers who have had the opportunity
of observing the smoothness and celerity with which
the cable roads in Chicago are operated, will not be
surprised at the claim that it is destined to be the
system of the future.